


Lilacs

by DecemberCamie



Category: Hunter X Hunter
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst, Blood, Don't copy to another site, Flowers, Hanahaki Disease, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Roommates, and they were ROOMMATES
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-14
Updated: 2019-09-14
Packaged: 2020-10-18 09:30:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,217
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20636936
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DecemberCamie/pseuds/DecemberCamie
Summary: If Gon got the Hanahaki Disease...((Hanahaki Disease - an illness in which unrequited love causes the patient to coughs up flower petals, eventually leading to suffocation))





	Lilacs

It starts off as a tickle in the back of Gon’s throat, something he really doesn’t pay attention to because he _can’t—_he’s a college student and being sick in college is almost equivalent to the death sentence considering how much work he’d have to make up. 

Not that Killua would ever let him fall that far behind, but. Still. 

That tickle soon turns into a cough. That cough doesn’t go away, and every once and a while Gon finds himself running out of club meetings or some lecture to hack his lungs out in the hallway. These fits grow and start happening so often that even one of Gon’s professors_—_Bisky_—_pulls him aside to ask what was wrong. 

But it isn’t until he’s being shaken awake from a dream by a very pale and very terrified-looking Killua that he realizes this cough might be a lot more serious than he ever thought. 

“There’s blood,” Killua says, horrified, with wide blue eyes that almost look purple in the darkness of their shared bedroom. “Gon, _look—”_

And there, on his pillow are three violet petals splattered in his own scarlet blood. 

* * *

“It’s a disease called Hanahaki,” the doctor tells him hours later in the emergency wing of the closest hospital to their school. “Flowers start growing in a patient’s lungs, and eventually suffocate the victim.”

“You mean he’s going to die,” Killua says sharply. He’s scowling, leaning up against a bleached white wall and glaring daggers at the man like it’s _his fault_ Gon is sick. Gon wishes he could rub the frown lines out of Killua’s face; he’s so much prettier when he’s smiling. 

“…eventually. Yes.”

“Are there any treatments for this thing?” Killua asks_—_no, _demands._ Gon can feel his best friend’s fury rolling off him in waves, even though they’re on opposite sides of the room. 

“Well, Hanahaki is caused by _feelings._ Unrequited feelings. If Mister Freecss can confess these feelings, and have them returned, the flower will die.” He pauses. “If those feelings are _not_ returned…we will be having a very different discussion very soon.”

* * *

“You can tell me who it is, you know.”

Gon looks over at Killua. His best friend is curled into himself in a pile of blankets, his astronomy textbook laying open in his lap. He’s not paying any attention to it, though; he’s just staring, hard-eyed, at Gon. 

Gon swallows thickly. He feels hot suddenly, and he has to kick off his own blankets. “Tell you what?” he mumbles, and Killua makes an exasperated sound in the back of his throat. 

“You can tell me who you _like,_ dumb-ass. I won’t judge you or anything. You like who you like, it’s not something you can exactly control.”

Gon frowns down at his crossed legs. His bed is messy, unmade. After staying up till 4:32 in the morning at the hospital, both he and Killua had decided to skip class for the day. But he’s not sure if it’s worth it, with the way Killua’s been staring holes into his head for the last few hours. 

“That’s the problem.” Gon’s frown deepens, his hands curling into his green blanket. “I don’t know _who_ I like.”

Killua blinks. Then blinks again. _“What?_ Gon, you_—_you are _dying_ because you like someone! How could you not know who it is?! How are we going to cure you if you don’t know!”

Something must have shown on his face, because Killua quickly backpedals. He slides off his own bed and moves over to Gon, sliding his hands around Gon’s and holding on tight. The painful knot in Gon’s chest loosens just a bit at the feeling of those long, smooth fingers that can only belong to his best friend. 

“Hey,” Killua says, softer this time. He looks up at Gon through thick white lashes and squeezes their intertwined hands. “Hey. I’m sorry, that was_—_bad. I didn’t mean to yell. I’m just…I’m scared, Gon.” Killua’s nose scrunches up as a pink blush spreads over snowy-white cheeks. “I don’t want to loose you.”

Now _Gon’s_ face is starting to warm. He tightens his hold on Killua’s hands, pressing them close to his chest. “I don’t want to loose you either! We…We’re supposed to stay together. Forever. We promised each other that freshman year.”

Killua’s smile looks painful. It’s like he’s trying to smile when all he wants to do is cry. But his voice is steady when he says, “Yeah, we did. And that’s why we’re going to beat this thing. We’re gonna get to the bottom of this, Gon. I promise.”

“But_—_how?” Gon swallows down the nervous anxiety crawling up his throat. The tickle is still there, too. The death flower. “If I don’t know who I like, then_—_”

“Then we’ll figure it out using what we _do_ know,” Killua says stubbornly and his eyes flash like blue fire. 

“What do you mean?”

“I _mean_ that we know what the doctor said! That those flowers you’re coughing up mean something. Ninety percent of the time people have Hanahaki the flowers are symbolic to the person you love. So I’m going find out what that flower is in your lungs, and we can try to match it to this mystery person of yours.”

“Oh.” Gon’s mouth falls open. “Killua, that’s brilliant!”

Killua flushes. He tugs his hands out of Gon’s but Gon can tell it’s more out of embarrassment than a lack of wanting to comfort him anymore. 

“St-Stupid,” Killua grumbles. He walks off towards Gon’s desk before Gon can get another word in, and throws a notebook in Gon’s direction. Gon catches it–ungracefully–and then grabs the pen Killua tosses his way a second later. 

“What’re these for?” he asks, confused. 

Killua rolls his eyes. “You’re going to write down a list of anyone you might have feelings for, idiot. We have to narrow this down somehow.”

* * *

“They’re lilacs,” Killua tells him bluntly a few days later. 

Gon blinks up at him, confused. “Huh?”

_“Lilacs!”_ Killua slams a book down onto the table, sending pencils and notebooks into the air. Gon jumps back, startled. 

Killua pushes the opened book towards Gon and stabs a page with is pointer finger. “The flowers. _Your_ flowers. They’re lilacs, Gon.”

Gon’s eyes widen. He scrambles back towards the table and stands up to hover over the book. 

Purple and blue and violet flowers stare back at him. The petals are small, delicate-looking. They grow together in bunches until there’s so many flowers that they block out their green stems. 

Gon reaches out, touches the flowers with the tips of his fingers. “They’re pretty…”

Killua scoffs. “They won’t look so pretty when you’re coughing them out of your lungs.” He looks at Gon, his state turning into something scrutinizing. “So? Are these the flowers? Do they look familiar?”

Gon’s gaze drops back down to the book. He hasn’t coughed up a whole flower before. Just bits of petals here and there, just large enough to make breathing uncomfortable. 

The only petals he’d always seen were covered in blood. 

Gon raises his eyes to Killua’s. Bright blue blinks back at him and Gon’s breath catches in his throat. 

“Y-Yeah,” he says, sounding winded as Killua stares him down. “This is it. Lilacs.”

**Author's Note:**

> I can't tell you how long ago I wrote this thing.......I got the initial idea for it ages ago and have a rough outline for how the rest of it is supposed to go, but never got the energy to actually finish it? So it's technically a wip lol. But I thought it would be nice to upload it here at least!
> 
> I chose for Gon to cough up lilacs for a specific reason. They’re purple and a bunch of other colors, which is really great, but the purple lilacs specifically mean ‘first love’. White lilacs mean purity and innocence, violet lilacs symbolize spirituality, blue lilacs symbolize happiness and tranquility, and magenta lilacs symbolize love and passion.
> 
> Thanks for reading~
> 
> [[my tumblr]](https://decembercamiecherries.tumblr.com/)   
[{my twitter}](https://twitter.com/decembercamie)


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